Equity

At Stand.earth, equity is one of our most fundamental values; we’re committed to living it and looking for ways to improve every day.

To us, equity is defined as socially just and fair outcomes for everyone - and that applies both to how we run our organization and how we engage with our work in the world.

Stand.earth’s investment in equity and inclusion has increased throughout our history, from our ecofeminist origins in the 1990s to today. It’s easy to value equity as a concept. The proof is in the everyday practices and concrete policies that back it up. We take deliberate actions to assure equal employment opportunities, a respectful and inclusive work environment, and increasingly diverse management and staff.

Stand.earth supports the leadership of communities on the front lines of the social, economic, and environmental crises we face. Front line communities that bear the impacts of social and environmental injustice are also best equipped to build the solutions to these issues.

We acknowledge the history and legacy of white supremacy in the environmental movement, and are committed to building democratic and equitable community relationships to advance solutions that work for everyone.

We believe that everyone deserves a healthy environment – including clean air, water, food, and communities. Environmental justice, the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental protection, is a core value of ours - and something we support in word and deed. We were founded to protect forests on the west coast of Canada, where First Nations have lived for time immemorial. We stand for the sovereignty and free prior and informed consent of impacted Indigenous Peoples.

In 2015 we launched an organization-wide Equity and Inclusion Program. Starting with board and staff trainings, we grounded our team in key concepts and frames like implicit bias, white supremacy, and the many interwoven ways in which racism and oppression operate in our culture and society, from internalized stereotypes and interpersonal bigotry to institutional policies and practices that continue to perpetuate injustice in our world. With that foundation, we conducted an organizational culture and climate review that resulted in a comprehensive report that surfaced our equity strengths, weaknesses, issues, gaps, and needs. A thoughtful review of this report by all board and staff members resulted in the creation of Stand’s Equity Committee and a plan for building a more equitable organization.

Still in the early stages, our plan is being created and shepherded by four working groups tasked with developing actionable paths forward toward building a more equitable and inclusive Stand.earth. Every board and staff member serves on at least one of these working groups because we believe working towards equity is a shared responsibility:Exploring our Normative Culture:

Review and evaluate cultural norms and expectations within Stand.earth and identify improvements/changes in areas such as our mindful leadership approach and our decision-making processes and structures.

Our Work in the World: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion goes beyond our organizational culture - it is integral to the work we do in the world. This committee works to ensure that the planning and implementation of campaigns incorporates equity, so our work can better reflect and serve communities on the front lines of the issues we work on.

Creating Space that Reflects our Values: Evaluate our community agreements which guide and support our respectful treatment of each other. Ensure all voices can be heard, and review our approach to meeting structure and process including facilitation, preparation, shared language, and conflict resolution.

Building the Team We Want and Need: Research and propose processes to better seek out, encourage, and hire candidates of diverse backgrounds for our staff and Board of Directors. Develop ongoing education programs to include content on microaggressions, transformative learning model, and systems trainings. Schedule these and other workshops and trainings to onboard new staff and board members and expand knowledge and understanding for the entire team.

As this work progresses we look forward to sharing what we learn and our ongoing plans to build a more equitable Stand.earth. We are always seeking ways to improve our daily commitment to equity and inclusion and we welcome feedback and suggestions from our broader community of supporters, partners, and friends.